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Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work—Family Balance

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  • Barbara Hobson

    (Stockholm University)

  • Susanne Fahlén

Abstract

European policy and discourse create crosscurrents for fathers: the promotion of work-family balance (WFB) and more involved fathering versus work-focused competitiveness and productivity goals in globalized economies. Using Amartya Sen's capabilities and agency paradigm, the authors provide a theoretical framework for analyzing agency inequalities in WFB: the disjuncture between norms/values and practices and between policies and fathers' capabilities to exercise them. The authors apply the capability framework to comparative European data considering working times and desired working times, flexibility and autonomy in employment, as well as perceptions of economic security and job security. The authors find differences in fathers' capabilities and agency for WFB across countries representing different welfare regime configurations, most strikingly between old and new EU member states. The majority of the European fathers wanted to reduce working hours substantially despite possible reductions in pay, underscoring the value of the capabilities framework for understanding potential freedoms for achieving WFB.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Hobson & Susanne Fahlén, 2009. "Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work—Family Balance," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 624(1), pages 214-233, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:624:y:2009:i:1:p:214-233
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716209334435
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vegard Iversen, 2003. "Intra-Household Inequality: A Challenge For The Capability Approach?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 93-115.
    2. Bina Agarwal & Jane Humphries & Ingrid Robeyns, 2003. "Exploring The Challenges Of Amartya Sen'S Work And Ideas: An Introduction," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 3-12.
    3. Walter Korpi, 2000. "Faces of Inequality: Gender, Class and Patterns of Inequalities in Different Types of Welfare States," LIS Working papers 224, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
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    1. Angelo Lorenti & Jessica Nisén & Letizia Mencarini & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Gendered parenthood-employment gaps in midlife: a demographic perspective across three different welfare systems," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-013, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Heejung Chung & Hyojin Seo & Holly Birkett & Sarah Forbes, 2022. "Working from Home and the Division of Childcare and Housework among Dual-Earner Parents during the Pandemic in the UK," Merits, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Lorenti, Angelo & Jessica, Nisen & Mencarini, Letizia & Myrskylä, Mikko, 2023. "Gendered parenthood-employment gaps in midlife: a demographic perspective across three different welfare systems," SocArXiv gmqd9, Center for Open Science.
    4. Heejung Chung & Hyojin Seo, 2024. "Flexibility Stigma Across Europe: How National Contexts can Shift the Extent to which Flexible Workers are Stigmatised," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 945-965, September.
    5. Claudiu George Bocean & Luminita Popescu & Anca Antoaneta Varzaru & Costin Daniel Avram & Anica Iancu, 2023. "Work-Life Balance and Employee Satisfaction during COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-15, July.

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